


Eternally Ever After

by milliyeon



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels, Alternate Universe - College/University, Angels, Attempted Suicide, Character Development, Drug Use, Drugs, Enemies to Friends, Forgiveness, Friends to Enemies, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Grieving, Guardian Angels, Love Triangle, M/M, Pining, backstories, enemies to lovers?? a little i guess, last four tags are in no correlation or order btw, major character death (they're angels so duh), mentioned rape, no graphic description but the topic is dealt with, partly set in heaven, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:53:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29606259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milliyeon/pseuds/milliyeon
Summary: "There are plenty of well-experienced guardian angels in our unit", Seungmin explained cautiously, trying not to trigger Jisung again, "And one less or more won't make that much of a difference now."Han Jisung's afterlife was alright. It was by far not as exciting as a guardian's, but living in heaven as just a regular angel was definitely peaceful enough for him. His harmonious little bubble only burst when Bang Chan – a popular guardian angel and good friend of his – mysteriously disappeared during his last mission on earth. After it seemed like everybody had already given up on Chan, Jisung took it upon himself to look for the lost angel. Little did he know that his trip to the mortal world would go terribly wrong – and force him to stay longer than he had initially planned when he accidentally landed on the doorstep of a handsome stranger.
Relationships: Bang Chan/Lee Felix, Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Hwang Hyunjin/Seo Changbin, Lee Minho | Lee Know/Seo Changbin
Comments: 6
Kudos: 26





	1. PROLOGUE: The Fall

**Author's Note:**

> hello guys! 
> 
> The idea for this story has been ghosting in my head for ages and now I think I finally did enough planning to actually publish it :D 
> 
> a few disclaimers beforehand: 
> 
> \- This is a work of fiction! The characters DO NOT correlate with the real existing people in any way 
> 
> \- The idea was purely mine. Any similarities to other books/movies etc. are coincidental 
> 
> \- About the tag "mentioned rape": The act itself will not be described (or not in detail, at least). The story will rather deal with the struggles of the victim and finding justice. Yet, I will put a trigger warning again in the foreword of the respective chapters if I consider the descriptions to be more triggering. Also, none of the members will be a rapist (little spoiler? lol) 
> 
> \- About the tag "attempted suicide": this might become a little more graphic, BUT it will only be ATTEMPTED, that means there's going to be a "happy ending" to that side (spoiler again??). Yet, I advise you to be careful if this topic is triggering to you as well. Again, there will be a tw in the respective chapters 
> 
> \- Since this is a story about angels, the topic of death and dying is frequently dealt with throughout the story 
> 
> \- If you think there's more I should put into the tags, please tell me! 
> 
> \- Also, if you have any questions about the universe, you can also ask me :3 but I might not answer all of them because they will be revealed or elaborated as the story progresses 
> 
> The first chapter is just a little prologue; the regular chapters will be a lot longer and they will be mostly from the pov of either Jisung or Minho. Please don't be too confused about some things, the details on most things will be explained throughout the first few chapters.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Chan has always been a man of love.

He loved a lot of things and he loved deeply and sincerely. He was convinced that love was one of the few forces – if not even _the_ _only_ – that held the power to save this cruel world and its people.

However, if he was to choose what he loved the most above everything else, it would come down to exactly two things.

One of them was flying.

The indescribable, exhilarating feeling of soaring high above the ground always gave him the kind of adrenaline that left him breathless, paired with a sense of freedom only angels and birds had the privilege to experience.

That day, it was just the same.

The blood was pumping through his veins like it was being chased by a predator when Chan maneuvered his way through the clear sky painted by the warm twilight, and despite the fact that angels didn't have a physical heartbeat, he could still feel the phantom of a wild thumping in his chest whenever he flew – when he was up in the air, it made him feel so alive he literally forgot he was actually dead.

He felt like a magician, defying gravity like it wasn't even real; like it was a concept established by society just to keep you from spreading your wings and fly to another place, a _better_ place, somewhere you truly belong. Ever since Chan had learned how to fly, he never wanted to miss this feeling again, the feeling of unlimited freedom accompanying him wherever he flew, and if there was something he despised, it was the idea of not having access to this kind of freedom. It always made him question how he was even able to _breathe_ when he still used to be a human wandering around on earth, unaware of this whole different world still lying ahead of him.

Chan was certain heaven was where he truly belonged. Destiny might have ended his life way too early, but in return, he was rewarded with a halo and a pair of wings that enabled him to thrive more than he could have ever when he was still alive.

Another wave of adrenaline rushed through his body when he shifted his wings and dived towards the ground – and when the cold wind shook his skin and the setting sun blinded his eyes, what else could he do other than smile to himself, mindlessly and contently, because everything just felt right in that very moment?

He was approaching a house in the middle of an apartment block, flapping his wings to lower his speed when he neared the roof covered by tiles. He slowed down as he had practiced a million times before and landed on the roof without making a sound, touching the surface as light and elegant as a flower petal wafting in the spring breeze.

Lips quivering, Chan was panting heavily, releasing little clouds of steam into the air every time he exhaled before they quickly dissolved again. It was cold and his muscles were aching all over his body, screaming in exhaustion – yet all he was able to do was sit there and gape over the view, the peaceful neighborhood basking in golden-orange rays from the sunset, mixed with the faint sound of children playing in a nearby backyard.

He had barely come down from his high when he suddenly felt a familiar warmth flaring up above his head, looking up to see his halo gleaming with golden light in short intervals. Lifting his hand to tap on the metal ring twice, he answered the incoming call and smiled, knowing exactly who was calling him.

"Hi Felix", he said as he stared off into the distance.

"Hey..." The soft voice from the other side of the line immediately made him feel warmer, despite the freezing cold of late February. "Hope I'm not bothering you at work..."

Chan's gaze softened, thinking about the shy look that was most likely gracing the other's face right now. _You_ _could_ _never_ _bother_ _me_ , he thought to himself.

Because as much as he loved to fly, he probably loved Lee Felix more.

"Ah, don't worry about that", Chan interfered. "It's pretty quiet around here, I was just taking a break. What's up?"

"I just wanted to ask when you're coming back today... And if you'd want to meet up when you do."

“Of course!”, Chan shouted out maybe a little too enthusiastically. “My shift is over in about two hours, I’d love to spend some time with you afterward. Where do you want to meet?”

“Uhm... actually, I would like to pick you up at the plaza if you don’t mind.”

“Oh?” Chan scratched his ear sheepishly. “What have you planned?”

Felix giggled, and the sound echoed in Chan’s head like it was the only thing allowed to be in there. “That’s a surprise”, he murmured lowly.

Chan bit his lip in anticipation, grinning. “I hate surprises.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Well, you just know me too well”, the guardian laughed and his heart missed a beat when Felix laughed too.

If flying made him feel alive, being with Felix simply made him feel human. In contrast to being a busy guardian angel with many responsibilities, doing something so domestic and mundane such as having romantic feelings for someone else managed to take his mind off his duties and just made him feel, well, normal. 

He loved his job, he really did, but he also loved Felix – and he needed a balance of both in order to feel truly complete.

Chan was about to start talking again, telling the other about his day, when suddenly, there was a familiar ache in the back of his head and he paused. “Wait a second, Lix.” He closed his eyes and his ears instantly started hyperfocusing, picking up on some remote sounds: the children playing seemed much louder now, and there was something else he heard, something approaching the children rapidly – a vehicle.

“Everything alright?”

His eyes snapped open, followed by his wings spreading wide. “Sorry, I've got to hang up”, Chan explained while he raised himself into the air quickly. “Duty's calling.”

“Oh, of course!”, the younger said understandingly. “Good luck, see you later!”

“Thanks”, Chan muttered, his wings swaying in the wind. “I-”, he started but cut himself off, biting his tongue.

“What?”

_I_ _love_ _you_ , he wanted to say but didn’t dare. It was too early; their relationship wasn’t at that stage yet where they could just casually drop the L-bomb.

“Nothing... See ya!”, the guardian shook it off, tapping his halo twice again to end the call.

Little did he know at that time how much he’d regret not saying those three little words when he still had the chance to.

Felix was giddy. The sun was almost gone, sending its last weak rays over the lilac sky while he was approaching the Guardian Plaza with a bouquet of flowers in his hands. The bouquet had three white roses in the middle, surrounded by some greens and a few flowers called _halions_ – Chan's favorite. It was a kind of flower that only grew in heaven; they called such flowers _aureflora_. Halions looked very similar to daisies, the only difference being the orange-yellow coloring at the edge of the petals that looked like a cute little halo.

Chan had been awfully busy the past days and Felix was so happy to finally be able to go on a date with him again. It hasn’t been exactly long since they had seen each other the last time, but to Felix, it felt like at least an eternity. He already missed him, his hugs, his warm hands, his fluffy wings, his soothing voice, his kisses... he was like a drug and Felix was terribly addicted.

Because ever since Felix had become an immortal, Chan was one of the only things that somehow made his afterlife meaningful – he felt too lost and too alone whenever he was away from the guardian.

And so he felt right now: Lost and alone when he arrived at the huge, abandoned plaza. An unsettling feeling was sitting at the pit of Felix’s stomach at the quietness of the scene. Usually, and especially right now at the hour of shift change, the plaza was busy as hell, with guardians either returning or just getting ready for their shift. But now, it was like a deserted island when Felix sneaked towards the entrance of the huge hall at the other end of the plaza.

He was hesitating, not quite knowing whether he should just enter or wait a little more, when suddenly, he noticed a guardian angel who came flying towards the door with rapid speed. “Out of the way!”, she panted, and Felix took a step aside just fast enough before she sped past him, pushing open the huge doors mid-flight and disappearing into the Guardian Hall.

Felix was able to catch a quick glimpse inside before the doors closed again, leaving him confused and even more uneasy than before. The Guardian Hall looked packed, with angels rushing from A to B, getting commands that were being shouted right across the hall.

Felix gulped and leaned against the heavy gates to push them open again, finally deciding to go in and find out what in heaven’s sake was going on. When he stepped inside the huge hall, he was overwhelmed; the enormous amount of fast-moving guardians and loud chatter formed a big contrast to the silent, abandoned plaza outside, and Felix didn’t know where to focus on.

“Unit 1117, this way!”

His eyes swerved towards the loud voice of a guy who led a group of guardians to a staircase.

“Where the hell is Kim Seungmin?”, a guardian who flew past Felix grumbled.

Seungmin? The Kim Seungmin who was a close friend of Chan’s?

“To all returning guardians from unit 0325: please meet in the conference room 204! I repeat, returning guardians from unit 0325 are meeting in the conference room 204!”

Felix’s head snapped up when he heard the announcement of the speakers. That was Chan’s unit! He must be there for whatever emergency meeting they were holding, Felix thought, since Chan was also the leader of this unit.

He was about to fly up and start looking for the right conference room when the guardian from before flew past his nose again – this time with Seungmin following right behind him, a _very_ stressed look on his face.

“Seungmin, wait!”

Seungmin stopped mid-air, looking over his shoulder. “Felix?” he turned around rushing down until he landed on his feet in front of Felix, eyeing him cautiously. “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to pick up Chan. Where is he?”, he asked, looking around the hall. “And why has hell broken loose in here?”

Seungmin was still panting and his eyebrows knitted in worry after his questions. “I’m so sorry, Felix...”

“What? Why?” The feeling in his stomach worsened on the spot.

“Something went wrong”, Seungmin started to explain frantically. “Chan hasn’t returned yet and we lost the connection to his halo.”

The blood in Felix’s veins froze.

“What- what does that mean?”

“Something might have happened to him”, the guardian said, “something like a flight accident, maybe... and we have literally no clue where he is.”

The sound of the flowers hitting the polished floor of the Guardian Hall was barely noticeable when the bouquet slipped out of his hand, but to Felix, it was all he could hear at that moment; like his head was being pushed underwater and the flowers had transformed into a bunch of rocks dragging him further down. Seungmin was talking again but the words were distorted, muffled, nearly impossible to focus on.

And Chan – his source of oxygen – wasn't there to save him from drowning.


	2. Born Not For Ourselves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here comes the first chapter! 
> 
> A lot about the universe will already be explained here, but not everything so just stay patient, there will be more world-building in the future chapters!  
> Also this is entirely from Jisung's pov but in the future chapters the pov will change between all the characters.
> 
> Btw if you are one of the beta-readers who have already read the first chapters: you still might wanna read this again bc I changed and corrected some things.
> 
> Have fun~

The unusual silence in the morning was something Jisung had yet to get used to, even after a whole month of experiencing it every day. He and his roommate Felix might both be reserved introverts to the outside world, however, at the same time, they were chatty and unstoppable when it came to talking among themselves.

But now, it broke Jisung’s heart not to hear his friend’s voice as much as he used to. For the past month, he’d wake up to the sight of Felix cuddled up in the bed across the room, eyes wide open, mouth shut, stare blank, his wings weakly hanging off the edge of his bed as if they weren’t part of his body anymore. Eating, showering, just any kind of moving was out of the question for the young angel since the day their dear friend – actually, _everyone’s_ dear friend – Chan suddenly disappeared.

Everyone, especially Felix, was worried sick when the popular, strong guardian angel they all knew and loved, failed to return from the last mission he was ever assigned. Everything went normal, the other guardians had said. Chan was almost done with his shift when suddenly, they lost the connection to his halo – their only way to communicate while he was in the mortal world. They could neither talk to him, nor track his location, but they just blamed it on technical issues at first. It wasn’t until his shift was officially over and he hadn’t returned on his own yet, when they declared him missing and started to send out special units in order to find him.

That search operation started exactly one month ago but there has never been a single sign of the lost guardian. And the more time passed, the quieter, lazier and more hopeless Felix got – Felix, who undoubtedly knew Chan better than his own pocket and held him closer to his heart than anybody else in all heavens. Felix, who always used to bring so much joy to the people around him, always smiling, always playful like a puppy. Felix, who now became nothing less than a piece of decoration, an inanimate object that didn’t react to the external world but was just lying there, like a life-sized stuffed animal. Felix, who spent all day and night, not grieving but also not quite hoping, just waiting for a sign, waiting for _him_ to return, maybe even waiting for himself to vanish into the void and hoping to find Chan there.

Felix, who forgot how to laugh _and_ how to cry.

Until that day; the day Jisung came home from work and entered his shared room, finally not being greeted by deafening silence again.

Instead, he came in to find Felix clenching to his pillow, crying out all the tears he had saved over all those seemingly endless days.

And he knew that Felix knew; he must have seen in the news what Jisung had learned earlier that day at work and had left him just as speechless.

Jisung wasn’t quite awake yet when he started his shift at 7 A.M. He hated morning shifts. Those times were inhumane, he thought, even for angels – who technically weren’t in the need of sleep anyway. Still, Jisung loved his bed, and getting up in the morning was something that bothered him even post-mortem. It was ironic: he had died and he still wasn’t allowed to sleep. Sometimes he felt like life ( _and_ death) were playing him.

Yet, he managed to plaster on a smile when he knocked on the first door of the day and entered it right after. “Good morning, San! How was your night?”, he asked as cheerfully as he could while balancing a tray with breakfast on one hand and holding a file in the other.

“Morning”, the young man sitting on the bed mumbled, thankfully accepting the tray with food. “It was... okay, I guess. I tried to sleep again but it didn’t really work out.”

“Don’t worry about that too much”, Jisung said while opening the blinds, letting in some orange sunlight. “It’s going to take some time, that’s completely normal at your stage.” Then he dropped the file onto a table next to the bed and turned to the patient, “I need to take a quick look at your wings, please.”

The man understood, shifting so that his back was facing Jisung. He touched the base of the wings and the back area around them gently, then went to the joints and cautiously felt beneath the small feathers that had started to grow. “The swelling has already gone down a lot”, Jisung concluded. “Do you still have any pain in your wings or back?”

“Just in my wings, but it’s not that severe anymore”, he responded. “It’s mostly around the joints.”

“I see.” Jisung took a step back. “Are you able to spread them yet?”

“A little, I guess...” San took a breath and tried to unfold his swings, but wasn’t able to stretch them out completely. “Like this.”

Jisung let his eyes scan the wings for anything weird. They were still kind of small and the feathers weren’t as big either or even missing in some places, but nothing out of the ordinary at this stage of the growth – the guy was making great process for the fact that he only woke up three days ago. It would take him a week maximum until he could start to go to flying classes, Jisung supposed.

“It’s looking very good so far. There’s going to be another check-up with the doctor later today, just so you know. And there’s another thing...” Jisung picked up the file again and flipped through the man’s records. “We found out that you actually have some relatives here in heaven...”

The patient’s eyes widened and he suddenly looked a lot more awake. “I do?”

Jisung nodded, a smile on his lips. It always excited him to deliver somebody this message. “The person whose DNA matched the most with yours is Choi Songhee. Does that ring a bell?"

His whole face lit up. “She’s my grandmother!”

Jisung noted that fact down into the file. “That’s really good. Do you want to give her permission to visit you at the hospital?”

“Yes please!”, the young man smiled.

“Alright. I’ll have to get some documents you will need to sign and then we could contact your grandmother.”

“Okay... Thank you!”

“No need to thank me”, Jisung smiled back, already on his way out. “I’ll be right back.”

He stepped out of the patient’s room and closed the door behind him, his mood significantly better than a few minutes ago, and made his way through the corridor. Sure, being a nurse could get exhausting from time to time and he didn’t relish the same social status as a guardian angel, but it was moments like these that made Jisung appreciate his job a lot more and not feel completely useless. Maybe he felt that way because he has never had a chance to meet his own relatives in heaven.

It wasn’t like Jisung never actually wanted to become a guardian – the choice had just never been up to him. That’s how it worked up there: You didn’t _choose_ to train for a position as a guardian, you could only _get_ _chosen_. Jisung has never understood the criteria heaven’s government used for that selection; he actually thought it was quite random and they purposely tried to keep the percentage of guardians low, just so they could keep their special status. But that was just Jisung’s own conspiracy theory – every other angel believed there was a higher reason, like fate or something behind everything.

He entered a small office room at the end of the corridor, finding it empty except for one colleague who was busy sorting some files.

“Morning, Jisung”, she said without looking up from the mess of papers on the desk.

“Hey Lia”, he said, approaching the desk. “Do you have a paper for visit permit on hand right now?”

“Uhh let me see”, Lia responded, shuffling through the different sheets until she found a few that were stapled together and handed them to her colleague. “There you go!”

“Thanks.” He walked around the desk to a little chest of drawers to look for a pen there, however, once he pulled one out and closed the drawer, he got distracted as he spared a look outside the window above the drawers.

Across the street, he could see the enormous building of the Guardian’s Hall. It was like a headquarter for the guardians; the place they had their meetings and offices. It looked pretty cool, Jisung had to admit. The main building had a huge glass dome on top and was located behind a plaza with several stone statues around it and a waterspout fountain in the middle. Then there were three skyscrapers around the main building: One was for business stuff and the other two served as dormitories for the guardians. And they were way fancier than Jisung’s dorm, of course – guardian angels were somewhat close to celebrities, and so they always insisted to be treated as such.

Not all of them, but most of them did at least. Jisung did have some friends who were guardians and they were the kindest souls he has ever met in any life. But other ones weren’t all that nice, acting rather snobby, and there were times Jisung just wanted to puke all over their fancy dorm rooms.

However, what caught his attention was the exceptional number of guardians hanging around at the plaza, just sitting there on the beige marble benches or the grass surrounding the plaza, chatting and resting. That was odd.

“Lia?”, the nurse asked without taking his eyes from the turmoil in front of the Guardian’s Hall. “Why are all the guardians here again?”

Jisung hasn’t seen them all at once ever since the leader of guardian unit 0325 – commonly known as Bang Chan and one of Jisung’s closest friends in heaven – had disappeared last month. The special units dedicated to finding him had required nearly every guardian angel to work overtime, which is why the Guardian’s Hall and its plaza had been almost ghost-empty most of the time.

“Oh, you haven’t heard?”, Lia turned around in her chair, blinking at Jisung.

He blinked back, raising his eyebrow as an indication for her to keep talking.

The brunette girl sighed, breaking eye contact so she could take a look at the plaza as well. “They closed all special units last night. That’s why they’re all back.”

Jisung’s eyes nearly popped out of his head, as he frantically looked back and forth between the guardians outside and his colleague. “So what, you’re telling me they just _stopped_ looking for him?!”

“I guess?” His fellow nurse shrugged carefully, an empathetic expression on her face. “I’m sorry, that’s just what I heard from my guardian friends.”

Jisung felt his heart drop to the floor and his stomach tie into knots – the same kind of knots he felt the first time he heard of his friend’s disappearing. Everything felt heavy suddenly and he took a deep breath in an attempt not to cry in the middle of his workplace.

“But why?”, he asked after a silence that had felt like half an eternity. Then he looked directly at Lia, a shiver running down his spine and into the very ends of his feathers, as a certain thought was tying the knot around his guts even tighter. “Is.. is he... did he...?”

Lia’s eyes widened as she realized what Jisung was thinking. “No!” She jumped out of her chair and put her hands on Jisung’s shoulders to calm him down. “They said that Chan’s star was still visible last night, so he’s definitely still alive.”

A wave of relief washed over him for a split second, only to be replaced by confusion in the same breath. “Then... why would they close the special units? I mean, if he’s still out there?”

“I don’t know. And neither do most guardians, from what I heard.” Lia retrieved her hands again, looking outside the window. “Seems like the decision was made from higher above, maybe by the Guardian Council even.”

_The_ _council_ _,_ Jisung thought, rage starting to boil inside of him. _Of_ _course_ _._

He pondered for a second, then remembered the papers that were still in his hands. “Could you do me a favor?”

Lia looked at him surprised. “Uh, sure, what is it?”

Jisung handed her the sheets of paper and the pen. “Bring these to room 268 and let the patient sign it.”

“Okay?”

She barely had time to react as he was already on his way out.

“Where are you going?”, she asked, following his movements.

“Beating some council member’s ass.”

“What? Han! Don’t forget you’re still on your shift!”

“I’ll be right back!”, he shouted from the corridor before the office door closed behind him.

Jisung was clenching his fists, only hesitating a second before he made his way towards the plaza confidently. And as he finally strutted over the polished stone surface, he could feel them: the stares. He could feel the guardian angels’ eyes on him, piercing right through Jisung as if he was an invader. He kept his eyes fixed on the entrance of the Guardian Hall, trying not to look back at anyone.

He wanted to throw up, right into each of their faces.

Non-guardians weren’t particularly forbidden there, yet the guardians were looking at him like he was an insect that didn’t belong there and needed to be removed immediately. Every one of them thought so, and he knew it. They thought the fancy plaza with the fancy water fountain and fancy buildings was their own property, that it was theirs and only theirs because they deserved it when in reality, they all just had ego problems and a very bad collective superiority-complex.

He had almost forgotten how much he actually hated the guardians.

Jisung approached the main entrance, eyeing the heavy steel gates of the huge hall. Even though it was surrounded by modern skyscrapers and a renewed plaza, the main building remained in its old shape, as it has always been throughout the centuries. Two marble pillars were framing the door, with golden ornaments in the shape of ivy coiled around the beige material and spreading out on the ceiling of the porch roof. The two steel doors each had an angel wing engraved and some bold golden lettering was sitting above them.

_NON NOBIS NATI,_ the lettering said. It was Latin, and even though Jisung did have mandatory Latin classes when he first entered heaven – because in fact, it wasn’t a completely dead language there – he didn’t quite know what it meant. Someone might have told him some years ago, but he supposed he must have forgotten anyway.

Standing in front of the huge gates, Jisung suddenly felt very small, almost intimidated even. But he couldn’t snicker out now, not with all the guardians behind him watching him like they were about to devour him. So he put his hands on the handle of the right door and pushed against the massive material with his whole body, barely opening it up enough for him to fit through. Yet, he somehow managed to slip through and inside the building, retracting his wings at the last moment before they could get stuck in between the doors.

_Stupid_ _doors_ _,_ he thought. Jisung really didn’t see the point in making them so insanely hard to open other than for the guardians to flex with their physical strength.

He looked around the hall, rays of sunshine falling right through the glass dome on top. It wasn’t his first time inside the building, yet Jisung was a little starstruck every time he entered it, unconsciously straightening his back and wings politely as he eyed everything. The hall must have been as big as a soccer field and there were even more guardians hanging or flying around. Most of them were chilling in the egg-shaped baskets hanging from the glass ceiling or just sitting at the scattered tables on the ground. There was another water fountain here; while the outside one was in no particular form though, this one was a statue of the archangel Michael, throning on a pedestal with smaller gargoyles attached its sides and water spilling out of their mouths into the well surrounding the statue.

There was a lot going on and it was noisy enough that the guardians inside didn’t bother to pay a lot of attention to Jisung, so he made his way through the hall more relaxed. Jisung’s eyes kept wandering across the huge room, recognizing some familiar faces here and there but not the one he was looking for. So he kept walking until he arrived at a counter with a secretary sitting behind it. The elderly lady didn’t notice him, so Jisung cleared his throat and her head snapped up.

“I’m looking for Kim Seungmin. Is he in his office perhaps?”

The woman scanned him judgingly, taking off her reading glasses. “Did you make an appointment?”

Jisung looked to the side for a second, brushing his blonde hair out of his face. “No... but that’s not necessary, we know each other.”

“I don’t care”, she retorts bluntly. “According to his schedule, he’s working at the communication center right now and shouldn’t be interrupted.”

“I’m sure he can take a short break, Ma’am. This is an important matter.”

She looked him up and down, and Jisung knew exactly what was going on inside her head: _What could be so urgent coming from a non-guardian?_ However, after a few seconds of hesitating, she finally picked up the phone on her desk. “May I see your I.D. please?"

Jisung nodded, taking out his wallet and handing the secretary the little plastic card that was his angel’s I.D. The only thing different from a mortal’s I.D. was the additional information about your date, place and cause of death – colloquially rather called date and place of “rebirth”, just because it sounded less harsh and some angels tended to react emotionally when they’re reminded of their own death. Generally, death dates were more crucial in heaven than birth dates, as the body stopped aging after waking up in heaven.

“Good morning sir!”, the lady spoke into the phone, her voice suddenly ten times politer as when she was talking to Jisung. “Sorry to interrupt. Someone named Han Jisung is here looking for you.” A short pause. “I know, but he claims that it’s urgent.” Another pause, the woman making a surprised expression. “Understood.” Then she hung up, Jisung looking at her expectantly. “Seungmin said you can meet him in his office in fifteen minutes.”

A shit-eating grin spread across Jisung’s face as he took a seat in a nearby chair. “Thank you very much.”

When Jisung arrived in his office at the arranged time, Seungmin was still nowhere to be found. Since the door wasn’t locked, Jisung was already seated inside on the chair opposite the desk, looking around the spacious room. It was more like a second home, even a small bed standing in one corner in case night shifts got the best of the office owner. It looked cozy overall with the wooden furniture and the fluffy carpet that Jisung was scared to stain with his dirty sneakers. But the most eye-catching part was the view outside the panorama windows behind the desk: since the office was situated on the 78th floor of the middle skyscraper, Jisung had an astounding view over downtown Haven City, his thoughts briefly drifting away as he admired the buildings and streets bathing in the orange light of the rising sun.

Even though the private office room was officially ascribed to Seungmin now, Jisung didn’t quite feel like it truly belonged to him. He could tell by the way that Chan’s stuff was still lying around: The name tag on the desk, the files and books on the shelves, the clothes hanging on the door, the unmade bedsheets, even the pens that were scattered across the top of Chan’s closed laptop – they were all there, just the way Chan has left them before he disappeared. And before Seungmin had to take over his role as the unit leader and move into his office.

He was sitting in silence until he heard the door handle being pushed down.

“Alright Jisung, I’m very busy so this better be actually important”, the guardian said sternly, walking around the desk until the brunette man was sitting across from Jisung, placing his forearms on the desk.

“Busy working in the communication center?” A mental image of the open space office popped into Jisung’s head; a bunch of people sitting in front of computers, monitoring the guardians in the line of duty. “You mean staring at a screen and twiddling your thumbs?”

Seungmin inhaled and closed his eyes before opening them again. “I can assure you, that’s _not_ what we do there.”

“Sure”, Jisung retorted bitchily.

Seungmin and him used to be really close. Their rebirth dates were only a few days apart, causing them to attend the same flying classes in the past. However, after Seungmin graduated from the Guardian Academy, they were forced to spend less and less time together, especially when Seungmin moved to unit 0325 and started to be busier every day. Thus, their relationship flatlined until it was just casual, being reduced to greeting each other here and there and meeting once a year on New Year's Eve – if Seungmin wasn’t working on that day, of course.

“If you’re just here to test my patience, I’d rather you leave again.”

“No, actually I’m here because I have questions”, Jisung said, sitting up straight and leaning against the desk as well.

“I hope they’re important ones?”

“Depends.” Jisung’s expression turned more serious. “Is Chan important to you?”

Seungmin raised an eyebrow, taken off-guard. “What?”

“Could you explain to me why they suddenly closed the special units?”

The guardian still looked confused. “The units? You’re upset because we closed the units?”

“No. I’m upset because it seems like you guys have given up on Chan.”

Seungmin exhaled, leaning back in his chair. “Look, Jisung, I’m sorry. He was our leader and my friend as much as he was yours and it certainly wasn’t an easy decision...”

“You’re kidding.” Jisung felt speechless. “You’re saying, it was _your_ decision to close them?”

“No, it was a council decision”, Seungmin countered immediately and Jisung relaxed slightly.

The Guardian Council consisted of an elected number of different unit leaders – one of which was Seungmin now since he had to fill in every spot that used to belong to Chan, simply because he has always been something like Chan’s right-hand-man – and every decision the council made was by anonymous majority voting.

“Guardians were overworking themselves because of the search operation and we still need them in other fields; it’s hard to keep up the usual business while simultaneously running the special units for Chan.”

“Seungmin...” Jisung looked at his friend almost pleadingly. “You can’t be serious.”

The guardian angel could only shrug. “We haven’t found the slightest hint on Chan, so the majority of the council thought it would be more productive to close the units for now.”

“Fucking hell, Seungmin!” Jisung jumped out of his chair, raising his wings enraged. “Angels don’t just vanish off the face of the earth! He isn’t even dead, why would you stop searching?”

Seungmin stood up as well, though he remained as calm as ever. “Over the past four weeks, we have crossed half the globe and turned nearly every stone, and still haven’t found a single clue on Chan’s location. We are getting hopeless.”

“Then you should cross the other half as well!” He was nearly screaming. “I mean, how is it hopeless when he’s still alive?”

A few seconds passed, an angry tension in the air between them as Jisung looked into Seungmin’s expressionless eyes. “I am sorry, Jisung”, he finally said.

“No. No, you’re not sorry!” Jisung’s back muscles were tensing up aggressively, his wings fluttering up once and sending a blast of air through the room. The office might have been big, yet it wasn’t big enough for someone to spread their wings, and so in addition to the wind causing some sheets of paper to blow away, Jisung accidentally knocked over some files on the shelves and sent them crashing onto the floor. Seungmin looked irritated as he eyed the mess behind Jisung, but the latter was too angry to care. “I bet you even voted in favor of the closing because you’re so comfortable as unit leader. Or was it your plan to begin with?”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me damn right!”, Jisung kept raging as something started well up inside of him. “I bet _you’re_ behind it all, holding him in captivity somewhere!”

“Okay, now you’re being ridiculous.”

“Oh, am I? You closed the units and _I’m_ the ridiculous one here?”

“Jisung, you’re-”

“No, _you’re_ a bunch of idiots!”

“Ji-”

“Seriously, is nobody thinking about Chan and where the hell he-”

Jisung went mute the second he realized that hot tears were streaming down his face, his hands trembling and wings twitching with every sob that escaped his throat.

Seungmin quickly went around the desk, sharing an exhausted look with Jisung before he closed their distance and caught him in a warm hug. Jisung was clinging to his old friend like a life-line, soaking his shoulder while everything on his mind went running through his head at once; he thought about how much he missed Chan, about the way no one really seemed to care about him after all, about them officially giving up on Chan, and most importantly, he thought about Felix and how his fragile heart must shatter into pieces right now and Jisung wasn’t there for him.

His wings retracted, sinking to the floor powerlessly, but he immediately felt Seungmin’s wings wrapping around his body in a protective manner. Jisung sank further into the embrace, sobbing the pain away until he felt like he had no tears left to cry, always feeling Seungmin’s hand running through his hair soothingly. He couldn’t remember the last time the guardian had hugged him that intimately but apparently it had been way too long because Jisung realized only now how good it felt again.

They pulled away after a while, Seungmin wordlessly handing him a tissue. “Better?”

Jisung accepted the tissue and dried his puffy eyes. “Yeah. Stupid fucking guardians”, he cursed under his breath, loud enough for Seungmin to hear but the latter just smiled. Jisung couldn’t stand the guardians, yet he had to rely on their emotional support – it was a fact he didn’t quite want to accept.

“Non nobis nati, Jisung”, Seungmin said after a while.

Jisung looked up from the bin he had just thrown the tissue into, fixing Seungmin confused. He recalled those were the words throning above the hall’s entrance but he couldn’t figure what Seungmin was trying to tell him. “What?”

The guardian laughed, rolling his eyes. “You never paid attention in your Latin classes, did you?”

Of course, he didn’t. “No, so will you tell me what you’re talking about or not?”

Seungmin leaned back against his desk. “It means ‘We are not born for ourselves’. It’s Haven City’s guardian motto.”

“Right.” Jisung nodded, something in the back of his mind remembering that he used to know that. “And why are you bringing this up now?”

“Because that’s what the council based the decision on”, Seungmin explained calmly. “We guardians don’t exist for ourselves – our primal purpose is to protect mortals.”

Jisung still couldn’t follow him. “So?”

“So we can’t focus on saving one of _our_ people”, Seungmin said finally, firmly looking into his friend’s eyes. “It would be rather selfish to keep looking for Chan when millions of humans need us more urgently on a daily basis.”

“But they need Chan as well!”

“I know it’s hard to accept... But honestly, there are plenty of well-experienced guardian angels in our unit”, Seungmin explained cautiously, trying not to trigger Jisung again. “And one less or more won’t make that much of a difference now.”

Jisung looked at him stunned. “That’s not true”, he said, gulping down another crying fit. “You know very damn well how many lives Chan has saved and how important he is to the economy.”

Seungmin broke their eye contact, chewing on his cheek. “Again, I’m sorry.”

“Not only that, Seungmin, but he’s needed in heaven as well.” Jisung stepped right in front of the guardian. “Felix hasn’t eaten or left his bed in a month.”

“You think any of this is easy for _me_?!” Seungmin looked at him in despair, and Jisung flinched due to his raised voice before he proceeded more calmly, “I miss him too, every single day. Being the leader of a whole unit is not as easy as it sounds and trust me, there’s nothing I wish more for than for Chan to just come back... Heck, look around,” his eyes darted through the room, “I didn’t even dare to clear his office even though it’s technically mine right now.”

Jisung did take another look around the office room, realizing that Seungmin was right. Nothing in this room seemed like Seungmin was able to let go of Chan and just leave him behind. He wondered why he hadn’t noticed earlier, before accusing Seungmin of being comfortable in his new position. “Of course”, Jisung admitted, regret washing over him. “I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s alright.” Seungmin took a few steps around the desk to stand in front of the huge window and stare outside. His halo was glowing a warm golden tone in the direct sunlight. “But for the record: No, I did _not_ vote in favor of the closing."

Jisung had already figured as much but he was glad to have confirmation anyway. “I just... I don’t understand.” He sat down onto the unmade bed. “Mortals can’t see, touch or hear angels, so there’s practically no chance he got kidnapped by them. It seems fishy, you know? Like, why is no one considering a proper investigation?”

Seungmin didn’t react to Jisung thinking aloud and there was a moment of silence between them, in which Jisung observed a dry bouquet of flowers standing on top of a shelf. He still remembered the day Felix had excitedly shown him the bouquet he had chosen to give to Chan – the bouquet he was never going to receive. Now, nearly all of the rose petals have fallen off and the halions’ heads were facing down sadly. Like everything else in this room, Seungmin was avoiding to touch the poor thing and do the deed of throwing it away.

“What if it’s the same case as Wonho’s?”

Jisung’s head snapped to Seungmin still staring outside, forgetting about the flowers instantly. For a second, he wondered if he had just imagined hearing those words, but they had been way too clear to just be a result of his imagination.

“Oh no, shut up!” Jisung’s tone was dead-serious. “That was a completely different situation. Wonho was a rat and he left by himself, like a betrayer and coward.”

Everybody in heaven knew about the infamous Wonho-case. Wonho was a guardian of great reputation who vanished one day some years ago, just like Chan. However, shortly after his disappearance, a certain letter was found; a letter from Wonho himself in which he confessed a lot of terrible things and that he decided to flee. It was a coward move, Jisung thought, he just wanted to escape the public humiliation of losing his wings and halo before being thrown into jail or the exile forever. He hasn’t been seen ever since and nobody knows where he is today.

“I know that it’s different but I’m just saying, hypothetically speaking...”

“No”, Jisung interrupted him mercilessly. “Chan is nothing like Wonho. He would never do such a thing to any of us.”

“Yeah”, Seungmin admitted quietly, looking at the floor. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Another pause was creeping up between them and as Jisung eyed the sad flowers again, an idea popped up in his head.

“Are we done here?”, Seungmin asked, turning around. “Because I would like to get back to work.”

“Wait!” Jisung jumped up from the bed. “You said you guardians can’t keep looking for Chan because you guys are overworked, right?”

Seungmin raised an eyebrow. “Yes, that’s what I said.”

“Then what if... someone else would be looking for him instead?”

“Someone else?”, the unit leader repeated curiously. “What do you mean?”

“I mean someone who’s not a guardian...” Jisung scratched his arm, avoiding his gaze. “You know... someone like me?”

Seungmin crossed his arms, his face somewhere in between confusion and disbelief. “No way.”

“Why not? That way the guardians can keep working on their usual stuff and there’s still someone out there looking for Chan. The brunette blinked, once, twice, his mouth agape before he could speak again, “Jisung, are you asking me if you can go to earth to look for him yourself?”

Jisung looked at him sheepishly. “...yes?”

“No”, Seungmin deadpanned.

“Oh come on, you’re not even considering!”

“I said no!”

“Please?”

“Sung, do you even hear what you’re saying?”

Jisung slumped exhausted. “Why? What’s so wrong about it?”

“A hella lot. But the main point is that you’re not a guardian and therefore not authorized to go to the mortal world.”

“Then, I don’t know, give me some kind of special permit?”

Seungmin sighed heavily, trying to keep his cool. “Jisung, it doesn’t work like that. Guardian angels need to train for up to five years before they can go on missions alone.”

“But I’m only there to search for Chan, not to protect anyone!”, he argued. “Besides, I’m a quick learner, you know.”

Seungmin stretched out his back, unfolding his wings half-way in the process. “Yeah, the answer is no”, he said unimpressed.

Jisung put on his best puppy eyes. “Please?”

The guardian went towards the exit. “No.”

“Pretty please?”, he asked again, folding his hands beggingly and following the other’s steps.

There was no answer, instead, Seungmin just opened the door.

“Seungmin!” Jisung closed it right back. “Please!”

Seungmin bit his lower lip, “Go back to work, Sung, or I will get you fired.” Then he opened the door again with more force, strutting outside.

“Hey!” Jisung didn’t lose a second in following him into the corridor, grabbing his shoulder to spin him around. “You can’t get me fired!”

He saw the exact second something inside of Seungmin snapped, and suddenly the latter was seizing Jisung by the collar of his shirt and furiously pushing him against the door of his office. Jisung gulped – somehow, he hadn’t expected Seungmin’s delicate body to actually have the force of a guardian angel.

“Listen, I’m a unit leader now, so I can assure you that I absolutely _can_ and _will_ get you fired if you don’t back the fuck off now.”

They stared back and forth for a good five seconds, their faces apart by centimeters. “You know, it's kinda hot when you’re flexing with your authority.” Was that reason why Chan always had so many people thirsting after him?

It worked though because the next thing that happened was Seungmin let go of him with a disgusted noise. “Get lost, Han.”

The rest of the day was officially ruined for Jisung. While his shift had started out somewhat decent, he wasn’t able to concentrate at all after the confrontation with Seungmin, causing him to space out every few minutes, confuse his patients and their needs several times and accidentally spill a cup of hot coffee over a colleague. He could be glad his boss wasn’t around that day, or he definitely would have lost his job even without Seungmin’s impact.

He was glad when his shift was over in the afternoon and he looked forward to going home and just dropping dead into his bed. However, after he unlocked his door and saw Felix’s shoes neatly standing in a corner – untouched for all this time – Jisung suddenly remembered that he had a roommate he urgently needed to check on.

He shut the door, dropping his bag while he practically ran into the bedroom. The room was flooded with darkness when he opened the door, the blinds as closed as they were this morning when Jisung left for work. But what made him freeze in the doorframe were the soft sniffles coming from a pile of blankets on Felix’s bed.

Jisung’s heart clenched at the sound alone. All these years they had known each other, the only time he had seen Felix cry was after he had died and woken up in heaven. He didn’t like thinking back to those times the freckled boy was sitting inside Jisung’s nursing ward, all confused and lonely until Jisung decided to befriend him. Since day one, he had felt somewhat responsible for Felix.

Jisung bit his lip, cautiously approaching the bed. Felix’s body was twitching beneath the pile and his wings were hidden as well, unlike the previous weeks when they had just hanged off the edge of the bed. Jisung removed the blankets carefully, only to be greeted by another layer between them: As he had guessed, Felix had curled himself into a ball of his own wings. His feathering was messy and greasy from the lack of shower and maintenance; there were even some individual feathers that must have fallen out, and they immediately flew to the ground as soon as the blankets were off.

“Hey, bud.” He softly stroked a small space of Felix’s back that wasn’t covered and sat next to him on the bed.

The sobbing died down a little. “Sung?” – His voice sounded broken and strained from all the crying. There was some rustling as Felix sat up and slowly uncovered his body. When Jisung saw his face, he almost started crying too; the sight of his best friend’s red, sore eyes and snotty nose was like a pang in his chest. Without further words, Jisung took him into his arms, burying one hand into Felix’s hair; it was equally as greasy as his feathers but Jisung couldn’t care less at the moment.

“They... they just...”

Jisung shushed him softly, caressing his head. “I know.”

Felix’s arms tightened around his roommate’s body, and just like Seungmin had done it earlier that day, Jisung put his wings around the both of them in an attempt to make his friend safe and let him know that he was there for him.

“I just don’t get it”, Felix murmured after a while, the two of them still cuddled up into each other. “He’s still out there... Why would they give up on him?” It wasn’t more than a desperate whisper.

Jisung shook his head. “I don’t know”, he just said, because what else was he supposed to say? He couldn’t bring himself to tell him that the guardians basically had better things to do.

Another minute passed in which they just held each other. Jisung closed his eyes and took a deep breath as Felix’s sobbing gradually dried up. When he opened his eyes, he saw a ray of sunshine shyly peeking through a slit in the curtains, highlighting some dust particles floating through the room. And while feeling the warmth of his best friend, it was then and there when he made his final decision.

“Felix. You know what?”, he said, pulling back just enough to look into his tired eyes firmly. “I’m going to find him.”

Felix furrowed his brows, causing the freckles around his eyes to distort a little. “What?”

“If the Guardian Council doesn’t give a shit about Chan, we’re just going to have to do this ourselves.”

“Jisung, what are you saying?” There was confusion written all over his face. “You’re not even a guardian, how are you-”

“I know”, Jisung cut him off. “And I don’t care.”

Felix was staring at him like he was crazy. Because, by all means, it was. “But how?”

“You know... it shouldn’t be that hard, actually”, he explained. “All I need is to convince a guardian to open a portal for me.”

“Wha- Jisung, are you out of your mind?”, Felix spluttered out. “That’s illegal!”

“I told you I don’t care!” Jisung put his hands onto his friend’s shoulders. “And if it costs me my job, my wings or my place in heaven, _Jesus Christ_ , I don’t care!”

“No, no, no, Jisung, no, you cannot do that”, Felix begged, shaking his head vigorously and tears threatening to fall yet again.

“Hey, please, calm down”, he said, gently grabbing his freckled face. “Chan means everything to you, why aren’t you supporting me?”

“Because”, Felix swallowed, spilling new tears, “what if something goes wrong? What if I lose you too?”

Jisung froze. It was like someone had punched him in his guts, knocking the air out of his dead lungs. He hasn’t thought of that option.

Angels might be immortal, but that didn’t mean they weren’t able to die _again_ – and disappear for good this time.

He closed his eyes, pondering for a hot second before looking back into Felix’s eyes. “I guess that’s a possibility we’ll have to put up with.”

“No!” Felix tackled him in another hug.

“Felix!” Jisung forced them apart again, clutching his shoulders. “Pull yourself together! I will do my best to stay safe but you will have to trust me.”

Felix was bewildered, staring at him through glassy eyes. Jisung could tell how much he hated the idea.

“You need Chan, we both know that”, Jisung argued. “I need him, Seungmin needs him, heaven needs him and so do the people on earth. For god’s sake, I _can’t_ _stand_ the sight of you just lying in bed apathetically... It breaks my heart, Lix.”

Felix lowered his gaze guiltily.

“And I know what I want to do is risky as hell, but I’m honestly done waiting for a miracle.”

The younger angel snuffled and wiped his tears away. “Fuck, you’re right”, he said, clearing his throat. “He needs to come back.”

Their eyes met, Jisung giving his friend a hopeful smile.

“Just... promise me that you’ll come back”, Felix pleaded while chewing on lips. “ _Please_.”

“Of course.” Jisung came closer, embracing him gently. “I promise.”

“Thank you”, Felix whispered.

“Under one condition, though”, the older said, pulling away from the hug. “You will take a shower and start taking care of yourself again.”

A bitter smirk went across Felix’s face. “Yes, sir.”

“I’m serious. You might be dead but that doesn’t allow you to actually look and smell like a corpse.” Jisung nudged his side, making Felix laugh – he _laughed!_ And, for the first time in what felt like an eternity, he could finally see some restored hope in Felix’s deep eyes.

Maybe, just maybe, there was a little light at the end of the tunnel.

“Ayo, Jeongin, old chap!”

It was the day after. While Felix had managed to get himself to look like a decent angel being, Jisung had found another good friend of his – who just so happened to be a guardian, too. Well, actually, soon-to-be guardian because technically speaking, Jeongin was still a trainee. But who cared about those two remaining years of education anyway, right?

“Jisung?” The young angel sat up from his spot on the ground, pushing up his sunglasses. He had been relishing in the spring sun of the late afternoon, lying on the grass area around the plaza. “What do you want?”

“Wow, not even a _hello_ _?_ ” Jisung clutched his chest theatrically. “Why would you straight up assume I want something from you?”

“Because you only ever come to me when you need a favor.”

“Come on, that was _one_ time!” Or two. Or three. Or eight. Nine? Jisung didn’t remember.

“Sure”, Jeongin said, standing up and running a hand through his dark brown hair. “What have you and Felix done this time?”

“Nothing!” Jisung lifted his hands defensively. “...yet.”

Jeongin sighed, turning around about to leave.

“Wait!” He spun the younger angel around again. “Okay, yeah, there’s this one thing I need...”

“I knew it”, Jeongin rolled his eyes but then looked at the older attentively.

Jisung exhaled deeply, already feeling sorry to pull Jeongin into his plan. “You’re not going to like this but please, hear me out before you say anything...”

“Remind me why I agreed to this?”, Jeongin asked, whispering.

Jisung closed the door behind him carefully. “Because you love me?”

The younger shot him a disgusted look.

“Because you love Chan?”, Jisung tried again.

“Fair enough”, he said quietly, turning around with crossed arms to face the inside of the huge room.

“So”, Jisung looked around the empty, cylinder-shaped room. “This is a portal room?”

“Yep”, the guardian in training nodded. “This one is currently out of order, so no one shall find us here.”

Jisung pursed his lips. Somehow, he had expected these rooms to be more spectacular, but what he was standing inside was a round, hundred feet wide room underneath the Guardian Hall, with steel walls and a row of plain lights attached to those, no windows. It looked cold. “So what’s going to happen?”

“The portal is going to open at the ceiling of the room”, Jeongin explained, pointing up to the ceiling of roughly 400 feet height. “So yeah, you will have to fly up.”

Jisung groaned, grimacing in pain. “Seriously?”

Flying was exhausting. As effortless as it might look when guardians flew around with their strong wings, it was nothing more than an exercise to Jisung – and he hated moving. If running was straining, flying felt like torture, and Jisung’s stamina left much to be desired. And on top of it all, flying up straight was even harder than flying up diagonally.

“Oh, and you will have to fly your way through limbo as well.”

Limbo – the world connecting life and death.

Jisung groaned again. “Why? I walked through it when I died, too.”

“Yeah, but now that you’re an angel, there’s no ground anymore”, Jeongin explained patiently.

“What kind of logic is that?”, the blonde complained.

The trainee clicked his tongue annoyedly. "Sung, I won’t open that damn portal for you if you keep whining.”

“Alright, alright!” He straightened his back. “Anything else I need to know?”

Jeongin hesitated, licking his lips. “You know I’ve only been at the academy for a year and never opened one alone, so if anything goes wrong-”

“Yeah yeah, it’s going to be my own responsibility. You already said that.”

“Right”, Jeongin said. “And nobody can find out or else-”

“You will be in trouble, I know.”

“Jisung, I’m serious. I’m only doing this because I want to help you find Chan but it’s a huge risk for me, too.” He looked at the blonde insistently. “But... I really miss my mentor, so I'm willing to take it.”

Jisung put a hand on Jeongin’s shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. “I will try my best.”

Jeongin looked at him, nodding. “Let’s do this”, he said, guiding the other into the middle of the huge room.

Jisung watched as Jeongin took a deep breath and closed his eyes in concentration, his hands in front of his chest, facing each other. A small, bluish flame ignited between his hands and he opened his eyes again, watching the flame. He took a step away from Jisung and spread his wings wide in one quick motion, the sudden breeze messing up Jisung’s hair – now he understood why the room had to be wide if they were supposed to actually fly in there. The trainee swayed his long, dainty wings, taking off and when he reached about the middle of the room, he tossed the flame up into the ceiling. The flame spread immediately, swirling in itself like a tornado and there was a gusting wind sucking into the portal.

“Holy shit!”, Jisung exclaimed over the loud swoosh and whistling, meanwhile Jeongin landed next to him panting. “Are you sure no one’s going to notice?”

“Don’t worry, these walls are soundproof”, Jeongin shouted back, proudly looking up at his creation. “I think it should be stable enough.”

“Okay...” Jisung gulped, very intimidated by the open portal and the force of its pulling wind. Something deep inside his brain was telling him this was a very bad idea. 

“This portal will hopefully get you to the place Chan was last located. Contact me once you’re on the other side!” Jeongin squeezed the blonde’s shoulder and spared a quick glance to his halo. “Good luck.”

But he looked into his friend’s eyes, remembering that he needed to do this – for himself, for Jeongin, for Felix and most importantly, for Chan. “I will.” Then Jisung spread out his wings, stretching his neck. “Thanks, man!”

He flapped his wings, once, twice, before he was pushed into the air. He barely had a second to notice how easy it was to fly along with the strong wind when suddenly, there was a particularly strong blast. Jisung couldn’t move his wings against it and lost control all of a sudden; he shrieked out as the wind twirled his body around mid-air and tangled up his wings, restricting his chance to move.

“Jisung!”

Everything moved too fast for Jisung to register as his body got tossed across the room. He briefly saw Jeongin taking off and reaching out a hand towards him before the portal sucked him in eventually and all he could hear was a fierce whistle. He shut his eyes in fright while the wind continued to punch him everywhere and then he screamed; a burning pain went all over his body, setting his skin on fire.

The last thing he thought about was his promise to Felix before he felt a very hard, final blow and everything went blank – just like when he had died for the first time.

**IDENTIFICATION CARD**

Name: HAN JISUNG 

Date of birth: UNKNOWN 

Place of birth: UNKNOWN 

Date of death: UNKNOWN 

Place of death: UNKNOWN 

Cause of death: UNKNOWN 

Place of residence: HAVEN CITY, HEAVEN 

Status: ANGEL 

Name: LEE FELIX 

Date of birth: UNKNOWN 

Place of birth: UNKNOWN 

Date of death: UNKNOWN 

Place of death: UNKNOWN 

Cause of death: UNKNOWN 

Place of residence: HAVEN CITY, HEAVEN 

Status: ANGEL 

Name: KIM SEUNGMIN 

Date of birth: UNKNOWN 

Place of birth: UNKNOWN 

Date of death: UNKNOWN 

Place of death: UNKNOWN 

Cause of death: UNKNOWN 

Place of residence: HAVEN CITY, HAVEN 

Status: GUARDIAN ANGEL (UNIT LEADER) 

Name: BANG CHAN 

Date of birth: UNKNOWN 

Place of birth: UNKNOWN 

Date of death: UNKNOWN 

Place of death: UNKNOWN 

Cause of death: UNKNOWN 

Place of residence: HAVEN CITY, HEAVEN 

Status: GUARDIAN ANGEL (FORMER UNIT LEADER) 

Name: YANG JEONGIN 

Date of birth: UNKNOWN 

Place of birth: UNKNOWN 

Date of death: UNKNOWN 

Place of death: UNKNOWN 

Cause of death: UNKNOWN 

Place of residence: HAVEN CITY, HEAVEN 

Status: GUARDIAN ANGEL (TRAINEE) 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He didn't die, he just blacked out okay don't worry <3 
> 
> The I.D. cards at the end will be updated at the end of each chapter with the information the reader gets in that chapter, as some kind of summary/overview so it's less confusing (hopefully meh) 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! Please please leave comments and kudos, I'm insecure if there's no feedback D: 
> 
> \- millie (twt/ig: @hanilla_)


	3. A Sign

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again ^^
> 
> First of all, thanks a lot for the feedback on the last chapters, it means a lot :<
> 
> Now this chapter is going to introduce Minho mostly, I hope you guys have fun reading~

**_Earth._ **

“Listen, Changbin... you’re a nice guy. You really are”, Minho said slowly, biting the insides of his cheeks until they burned. He tried his best to hold eye-contact with the boy in front of him who was looking back at him nervously and frozen, but his eyes kept betraying him. So did his hands that were fiddling with the hem of his hoodie, messing with the fabric like he wanted to punish it for doing something wrong.

 _This is it,_ Minho thought. _This is how we will part._

“I actually already wanted to tell you yesterday but... you seemed so happy, I didn’t want to ruin your day...” Minho briefly recalled the memory of yesterday; it hadn’t been more than a plain movie night, but the feeling of Changbin’s warm body between his arms still lingered on his skin, gnawing at him, almost burning. Something had been terribly off lately and simple acts such as just _holding_ his boyfriend felt wrong, to the point he couldn’t take it anymore. Nothing felt like it used to feel two years ago, and their relationship felt more like a duty than a real enjoyment at this point.

Minho dared to look into his eyes again but they were as pained as he had guessed, so he looked away, fixing the wooden floor underneath his feet. It was torturous to look into his familiar eyes.

 _No, Minho, focus!,_ he told himself and took a deep breath before he forced himself to look at him again, eyeing the boy as confidently as he could. He cleared his throat, summoning all the courage he required, “See, you’re a great person. The time I spent with you was a real blessing and I don’t regret a single second of it...”

 _Then why are you breaking up with_ _him?_ , an annoying, high-pitched voice in his head wondered suddenly.

“No, I mean... being with you was an amazing experience, but...”

_You’re making it worse._

“Well, okay, obviously there’s something wrong, otherwise I wouldn’t have to do this right now...”

_That sounds terrible!_

“But it’s not because of you! It’s not your fault, it’s just that I...”

_As if that makes it better in any way._

“You know, my feelings for you... they aren’t the same anymore.”

_Ouch. You insensitive asshole._

“And as I said, it has nothing to do with you! You’re amazing, I’m just...”

 _You’re repeating yourself,_ _hun_ _._

“I just... I kinda... you know, my feelings, they... I think... it’s better if... if we....”

An exasperated sigh echoed from the voice. _Get to the point!_

The frozen expression of the boy in front of him crumbled all of a sudden, his brows furrowing in frustration. “Jesus _fucking_ Christ, _shut the fuck up!_ ”, Minho shouted out, throwing his head into his neck and covering his face with his hands. He couldn’t handle it anymore and finally stepped away from the mirror, flopping onto his bed. An irritated growl escaped his throat when his back hit the soft mattress.

This was the exact reason he didn’t like relationships. Feelings were complicated, they were an entanglement of fears and probabilities, impalpable and _so_ hard to figure out, while Minho rather considered himself a simple man of rationality. He preferred to keep his thoughts and emotions to himself, never needing many people around him, let alone a _boyfriend._

A few years ago, he wouldn’t even have imagined himself in a situation like this; in his room, practicing in front of a mirror how to break up with his partner and letting his thoughts and doubts get the best of him like a coward. This wasn’t like him at all. He was _Lee Minho_ , the loner who usually never hesitated to be as straight-forward as he could because he has never cared about what other people were thinking. Lee Minho wasn’t a coward.

He has always despised the idea of a romantic relationship; Giving yourself up for another person sounded like a sheer nightmare and Minho has never understood why people would do a commitment like that voluntarily. And now that his first, very own relationship was inevitably coming to an end, he felt even more confirmed in what he has always thought – that relationships were nothing but a waste of time and energy.

A sudden wave of regret hit him like a slap to the face. Why had he been naïve enough to think he could do it? Just what made him believe it would be a good idea to commit to someone romantically and show them all of himself, mentally and physically? It was embarrassing, Minho thought. Now there was a person out there knowing all the shit about himself he didn’t _want_ anyone to know.

But the question was: How do you tell all that to a person without leaving them an emotional scar? Because as much as Minho would love to just be a stone-cold bastard without any feelings, he wasn’t. He was human and unfortunately, he had spent too much time with Changbin and therefore, the latter did grow somehow important to him – he just felt like they’d be better off as friends.

“ _Meow._ ”

His thoughts died down immediately and he turned to the side, staring right into the large eyes of an orange tabby sitting on the floor. Minho reached out his hands and lifted it onto his bed next to him, gently stroking the cat behind its ear. Leaning into his touch, the little animal closed its eyes contentedly and started purring while an unconscious, barely noticeable smile graced Minho’s lips.

He didn’t need people, nor a relationship. Cats were really all he needed. They were simple, quiet, calming and certainly less annoying than humans and all their never-ending problems. Cats were too lazy to deal with things as complicated as emotions, and so was Minho. He was convinced he must have been a cat in his previous life; there was no other explanation why he sympathized more with the furballs than he did with most humans.

The people around Minho often liked to joke around that he was aromantic and would turn into a grumpy cat lady one day. And honestly? He was fine with that.

Love just wasn’t his thing.

He kept stroking the tabby’s back while his eyes wandered outside, gazing at the grey sky through the naked branches of the oak tree behind the window. The past days had been continuously rainy, as if the clouds had been crying all this time, but now the sky was purely dull and no one could tell whether the clouds would clear soon or if it would start pouring again. The weather was as indecisive and uncertain as Minho felt too, and the greyness was tugging at his mood, dragging him even further down.

Minho was only pulled out of his thoughts when there was a shy knock on his door. He sat up drowsily, the cat jumping down the bed, “Just come in, Hyunjin.”

The door creaked open and his roommate peeked inside timidly. His tall frame was looking awfully misplaced in the doorframe, like he didn’t quite know what to do with himself.

“How often have I told you you don’t need to knock?”

“Yeah, right, uh... sorry”, Hyunjin stammered, fiddling with his hands.

Minho made a real effort controlling the muscles in his face so he wouldn’t roll his eyes at the younger. And how often has he told him to stop excessively apologizing? “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to say that, uhm...” He tucked a loose strand of his long blonde hair behind his ear. “...my part of the rent is going to be a little late this month.”

“Oh?” Minho stood up, crossing his arms. “Why's that?”

“Well...” Hyunjin scratched his cheeks. “I just lost my job.”

He sighed. “Again?”

The blonde nodded his head bitterly. “My boss dismissed me this morning, saying I was too ‘unqualified’ for the job.”

“ _Unqualified?_ ”, Minho echoed, his voice dripping in ridicule. “Do they expect you to have a degree in waiting tables or what?”

“I don’t know!” Hyunjin leaned against the doorframe, banging his head against it. “Maybe it’s because I'm too clumsy... I mean, I did drop the tray a few times...”

“Don’t say that”, he said in an attempt to comfort his roommate.

“Well, that’s what they told me when I was fired at that grocery store as well...”

The elder exhaled, giving up. He wasn’t mad by any means, he was rather feeling sorry. Ever since they moved in together, Hyunjin has been passed from one part-time job to another, never having a secure source of income and constantly struggling to keep himself above water. Unlike Minho, who was lucky to have a family wealthy enough to financially support his studies, Hyunjin’s family wasn’t exactly as well off as the average citizen. Thus, he had to work side-jobs in order to be able to attend university, however, the pressure of working _and_ studying apparently burdened him a little too much, causing him to work sloppily and be fired as a consequence.

But he liked the boy; he wasn’t very talkative and left Minho alone most of the time. When Minho had been casting different people to live in the other free room of his apartment, Hyunjin had seemed like the least annoying option – which was pretty much the only real precondition he had for a roommate. However, if Minho had known about the younger’s constant financial struggles, he might have opted for someone else back then.

“Whatever”, Minho shook it off. “It’s alright, I can lend you some money for now.”

“Thank you so much”, Hyunjin said meekly, bowing slightly.

Internally, Minho cringed at his bow. Sure, he didn’t converse with his roommate that much but after two years of living under the same roof, Hyunjin was still very intimidated by him. He didn’t understand yet that Minho’s _"I hate everyone and everything”_ -persona was just a persona, when in fact, Minho was nothing more than a cat-loving student who liked to have his peace.

“So, I’m just gonna... you know, scroll through some job ads in my room.“ Hyunjin pointed across the small corridor connecting their rooms. “And you have a date with Changbin later, right?”

“...Yeah”, Minho said, pursing his lips when he got reminded of what was lying ahead of him. Hyunjin didn’t know Minho only arranged their “date” so he could break up with Changbin.

“Well, have fun then”, Hyunjin said with a look in his eyes he couldn’t quite read before there was a thin-lipped smile on his face.

“Thanks”, Minho said plainly, forcing a little smile too before closing the door behind his roommate and leaning against it with his back.

Another reason why he shouldn’t have opted to move in with the younger: Minho has only ever met Changbin because the latter was Hyunjin’s best friend. Therefore, he would have never gotten into this situation if he had chosen a different roommate back then.

Minho glanced at the clock, realizing that it was already go-time if he didn’t want to be late meeting his still-boyfriend, but something was holding him back. he still felt too paralyzed, not daring to leave his own four walls yet. It made him sigh for the umpteenth time that day and suddenly, he felt very alone – forsaken by his own confidence which left him alone to bleed out until he died.

Shaking his head, Minho got distracted for a second when his eyes fell onto the photo on his nightstand. He stepped towards it and picked up the framed picture, closely eyeing the selfie of the two teenage boys. His mind drifted away, slipping away into the past, into different times with different circumstances when everything seemed much easier. There hadn’t been any problems related to love or money – it was just the two of them, and the rest didn’t matter.

He missed those times. He really did.

Minho placed the frame back onto the nightstand, just in time when he suddenly heard loud screaming echoing from outside. He flinched at the piercing sound that grew louder every second and immediately looked out the window wide-eyed. Minho was frozen on the spot as he stared into the distance, trying to make out the source – it sounded like someone was in intense pain and it made his blood freeze in his veins.

He was still focused on the distance, looking everywhere and nowhere when the screaming got creepily close all of a sudden. And in a flash, _something_ passed the window, almost startling him to death when it fell through the thick branches of the oak tree. Then, there was a loud thump and the scream broke off at once.

Minho was still frozen on the spot, scared to move an inch with his wobbly legs.

_What the hell just happened?_

Minho hadn’t been able to catch a sight of the _thing_ , only remembering a lot of white and a few other colors flying past his eyes too quickly. Did someone shoot a bird? Since when did they have swans flying around their house? And why the hell was the bird sounding like a human screaming?

Curiosity eventually got the best of him and he cautiously approached the window, the cold air tingling on his skin as he opened it wide enough to stick out his head. Minho’s vision blurred for a second and he frantically clung to the window frame – he was incredibly scared of heights, so looking down from his fifth-floor apartment was more of a challenge than he’d like to admit.

When his vision finally cleared though, his brows furrowed and he squinted in an attempt to take an extra close look – because what he saw didn’t make any sense.

Lying on the asphalt in front of his doorstep, Minho saw an oddly gigantic pair of snowy white wings, messily lying on top of each other and covered in some red, bloody spots. But what confused him the most were the clothed _legs_ peeking out from the feathery pile.

 _What_ is _that? What happened?_ Minho looked around the street, trying to find answers to his questions but the neighborhood was ghost-empty. And when he looked down again, _it_ was still lying there.

“Hello?”, he managed to ask after a while of just staring.

No response.

Minho closed the window, deciding to go down to take a better look. He left the apartment, walking down the stairs like he was in a trance. He wanted to know what was going on.

When he pulled open the front door, he still felt kind of lost; up close, the enormous wings looked even more unreal and Minho was overwhelmed. Then he took notice of the pair of legs again, eyeing the jeans and sneakers on them. He lifted his gaze to the sky, only to find some ripped out white feathers hanging between the oak branches.

His eyes widened in realization. _Perhaps...?_

Minho shook his head immediately and slapped himself once. He’d watched too many movies; angels didn’t exist. There must be a totally rational explanation as to why there was a person buried underneath a pair of white wings. Maybe the guy who had screamed earlier was some maniac who had shot a very rare white bird from the sky, and the bird fell right onto him, killing them both. That was it – that _must_ be it. There was no other way. Right? Right.

This way or another, it wasn’t even Minho’s business. The next person coming down the street would find this and take care of it – Minho shouldn’t care.

However, something inside of him _wanted_ to care.

It was still there, even after he had slapped himself another time, and that was when Minho started circling it quietly until he was standing right in front of the feet. He pressed his lips together, bending over and carefully grabbing the top wing to shove it aside.

And when he did, Minho nearly got a heart attack.

What the vast limb had hidden, was a boy. Messy blonde hair, eyes closed, mouth ajar – almost like he was sleeping, even if little pool of blood underneath him was telling something else. But the thing that made Minho want to shriek out was the fact that the wings were grown out of the guy’s back, undoubtedly making it part of his body.

It could not be.

Minho blinked, once, twice, and over and over again until he felt dizzy. It wasn’t possible. He must have been hallucinating. It was simply _not possible_. He was dreaming. Or he was awake but going crazy. Or this guy was a hell of a good cosplayer or something. Angels didn’t exist. They _didn’t_.

He exhaled, pulled out his phone and frantically searched for Hyunjin’s number in his contacts. His roommate was the nearest person around and Minho desperately needed someone to confirm that his mind wasn’t playing a sick prank on him.

He found his number and called him, shakily pressing the phone to his ear.

“Hello?”, Hyunjin asked with a little confusion in his voice.

“Come down the stairs and meet me in the driveway”, Minho said straightly. “Now.”

“Uh, yeah, sure.” He heard some rustling in the background. “Is everything alright?”

“I honestly don’t know”, Minho whispered to himself, his eyes never leaving the bruised boy on the street.

“What did you say?”

“Never mind, just come here”, the elder hung up, shoving his phone back into his pocket.

He just kept staring in the meantime, his mind blank until he heard the front door being opened by Hyunjin.

“So what’s-” The blonde stopped mid-sentence and mid-way, his feet frozen to the ground while his eyes were about to pop out of his head. “Holy shit.”

“Please, tell me you see it too”, Minho begged him. “Tell me I’m not going crazy.”

Hyunjin looked back and forth between the winged boy and his roommate, the disbelief written into his face. “You’re not”, he answered after an eternity of open-mouthed staring.

Minho pushed his hair out of his face in distress and rubbed his temples. “So... what do we do?”

“I don’t know...” Hyunjin went closer towards the unconscious boy, gaping at the huge wings. “I don’t understand... Are those _wings_? Who is he? What happened?”

“I have no friggin’ idea”, Minho retorted with his eyes glued to the sky. “I think he... he fell from the tree or roof?”

“Maybe we should call an ambulance?” his roommate suggested tentatively. “Is he still, you know... alive?”

Carefully drawing closer and kneeling down next to the boy, like he was a bomb about to explode, Minho shoved aside a golden bracelet to took a hold of his wrist and placed his fingers on it, looking for a pulse...

But there was nothing.

A chill went down his spine as he frantically placed his fingers on the boy’s neck and tried to feel any faint signs of life underneath the cold skin – and shuddered when he failed to do so.

“Oh my god”, he whispered, retrieving his hand like it had been bitten by a tarantula. “Hyunjin... I think he’s dead!”

“What?” Hyunjin seemed to wake up from his paralysis, kneeling down as well. “Are you sure?”

Minho held a finger under the boy’s nostrils. “He’s not breathing at least!”

“Fuck it, I’m calling an ambulance!”, the blonde said, hectically whipping out his phone.

Meanwhile Minho grabbed the boy’s face, giving it light slaps in an attempt to magically wake him up although he knew it probably had no use. “Hello?”, he asked in between, “Can you hear me?”

As expected, there was no response and Minho’s panic just continued to grow bigger and bigger with every passing millisecond – for some reason, it just hit him _now_ that this person’s life might be in danger and no matter _what_ the hell he is, he definitely needed medical help.

Hyunjin clicked his tongue, his phone pressed to his ear, “God, why is no one picking up?”

“Hello?!”, Minho shouted at the boy’s face, watching as he didn’t respond again, and his panic suddenly overtook him. “For fuck’s sake, _wake up!_ ”

Minho had whacked him across the face so hard his own hand was hurting.

But he barely had any time to register the pain when suddenly, as by a miracle, the boy’s eyes flew open and he took in a sharp breath.

Hyunjin gasped, “ _Christ!_ ”

He was panting vigorously and sat up looking around like a scared meerkat, his eyes blown wide and oblivious to Minho and Hyunjin next to him.

“Oh my god”, the boy gasped, looking at his hands. “I’m alive! I mean, technically I’m not, I’m still dead but I’m not _dead_ dead, so-”

He stopped his rambling when he finally noticed the two sets of eyes that were lingering on him like he was the eighth wonder of the world. Minho didn’t understand a thing of what he was saying but he wasn’t even listening properly because...

This guy literally just came back from the dead.

Minho was _not_ able to close his mouth.

The boy’s gaze was shifting back and forth anxiously between Minho and Hyunjin, like he had just been caught doing something he shouldn’t have done.

"Hold on...”, he murmured hesitantly after a while, “...where am I?”

Minho and Hyunjin shared a questioning glance but before anyone could answer, there was a sudden voice coming from the latter’s phone which was on speaker mode:

“Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, how can I help you?”

The boy startled, gasping. “Oh my god, I’m in Seoul!” his face lit up in delight. “It worked! I made it to earth, I’m really here, I’m-”

He took notice of Hyunjin and Minho again and his expression fell.

“Oh no”, he muttered as he tried to crawl backwards, dragging his wings on the floor. “No no no, shit, no-"

“Hey, wait!” Minho followed him.

“No, don’t-” He was cut off when he tried to get up, but stumbled a few steps backwards; a painful groan escaped his mouth as he was clutching the side of his hip and his wings were twitching helplessly.

Minho rushed by his side in an instant, trying to support him by holding his arm. “You’re hurt!”

“Hello? Anyone there?”, the lady on Hyunjin’s phone asked.

“I’ll ask for an ambulance, okay?”, Hyunjin said, deactivating speaker mode and leading the phone to his ear.

“What?! No! no ambulance!” Suddenly, one of his wings snapped forward and whipped the phone out of Hyunjin’s hand, tossing it surprisingly far away where it crashed onto the asphalt, most probably left with a shattered display from the force of the throw.

“Hey!” Hyunjin immediately turned to retrieve his phone.

Minho’s eyes widened. Seeing him actually _use_ his wings looked even more unreal than the wings themselves, but somehow, it _was_ all real.

The boy used the moment of distraction and wrenched out of Minho’s grip all of a sudden, stumbling again.

“I- I should go”, he hissed between pain-gritted teeth, taking steps backwards. “This is a mistake... You have never seen me!”

Minho wanted to follow him but now he felt paralyzed under the distraught expression of the winged boy, like he was begging him with his eyes to stay where he was and _not_ follow him under any circumstance.

And it worked because Minho's feet were rooted to the ground.

“It was all a dream, okay?” The boy cracked a desperate smile. “Bye!”, he said before he turned around and just took off, half running and half limping his way down the street until he turned around the corner and disappeared.

And with that, he was gone.

Just... gone like he had never even existed and Minho wondered if this was really just a dream like he had said.

“What just happened?”

Minho startled when Hyunjin appeared next to him out of nowhere and looked down the street quizzically.

“I wish I knew”, he just managed to reply, eyeing the broken phone in Hyunjin’s trembling hands – the only evidence of the winged boy's existence.

Hyunjin sighed as he fiddled with the device, trying to turn it on, but gave up fairly quickly. “Great. That bitch just turned half a year’s salary into dust.”

He was only listening to his roommate complaining with half an ear when he caught sight of something glistening on the street and approached it warily. Kneeling down, he recognized a delicate golden chain, his eyebrows knitting in confusion as he picked it up.

“What’s that?”, Hyunjin asked as he jogged towards him.

Minho’s eyes widened when he realized this was the bracelet that used to be around the mysterious boy’s wrist.

Seems like there was more evidence of his existence after all.

“It’s a bracelet”, Minho said. “I remember _he_ was wearing it... It must have fallen off or something.”

“Oh.” Hyunjin eyed the material in Minho’s hand. “So... you’re gonna return it?”

“I honestly don’t even know if this guy was _real_.” Minho shook his head, stuffing the bracelet into the pocket of his jeans.

“Good point.”

“Whatever. Let’s get inside”, the brunette proposed and turned on his heel but he was stopped in his tracks immediately when he saw a familiar silhouette at the other end of the street approaching him worriedly, making Minho freeze on the spot.

It was Changbin.

**_Heaven._ **

Jeongin was chewing his bottom lip so hard he was afraid it would start bleeding any second.

After his attempt to follow Jisung through the portal had failed, he had been too scared to open another one. It was the reason why he was currently sneaking through the empty corridors underneath the Guardian Hall leading to the underground portal rooms, quietly making his way outside so no one would become suspicious.

He knew he had messed up the portal he had opened for Jisung when the latter had lost control over it so badly. It had swallowed him mercilessly and either, if everything went semi-well, spat him out on some random spot on earth, or – and Jeongin didn’t even want to consider this possibility – it had spat him out somewhere in limbo where he was now straying for an exit he wouldn’t ever find without the expertise of a guardian.

Jeongin gulped.

This was a nightmare. His friend was lost somewhere in between the mortal and immortal world, probably in danger and it was _his_ fault. How could he have thought it would be a good idea to help him with his crazy idea?

The least he now could do was get back above ground to call Jisung on his halo and pray to the archangels that he’d respond.

Before Jeongin had the chance to turn around the last corner to a staircase that would lead him into the hall, he was stopped abruptly when he almost bumped into someone. He froze, looking at the familiar guardian in front of him with wide eyes.

“Jeongin?”, the guardian said, eyeing the trainee in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, hey Hongjoong!”, Jeongin said, smiling in hopes to conceal his nervousness. “I was using one of the rooms, just uhh... practicing!”

Hongjoong tilted his head and Jeongin bit his lip. The guardian wasn’t only a unit leader but also a teacher for basic flying classes – those classes every angel had to attend once in their after-life – and so he used to be Jeongin’s teacher in the past. He wanted to crumble under Hongjoong’s gaze that wasn’t even supposed to be intimidating, however, Jeongin couldn’t help but feel small under his judgmental stare.

“Practicing?”, he finally questioned, crossing his arms. “All alone?”

“Yup. My mentor gave me permission”, Jeongin lied more confidently than he probably should.

Hongjoong kept eyeing him warily. “Who’s your mentor?”

_Shit._

Cold sweat was forming on his neck. If Hongjoong was asking this particular question, he knew the guardian would go ahead and actually ask his mentor. But Jeongin had no clue how he was supposed to save himself now and thus a stammered “S-Seungmin!” came out of his mouth before he could have thought of anything else.

He was definitely screwed.

“Oh!” But to his surprise, Hongjoong made an understanding face and released his arms from one another. “Of course. Seungmin’s so busy at the moment, I bet he can’t spare a lot of time for all the new trainees he was assigned since he became a leader.”

“Yes, right!”, Jeongin agreed a little too enthusiastically, a weight falling off his chest. He couldn’t believe he ate his lie. “He’s _soo_ busy, he has to let us trainees practice alone sometimes.”

“Yeah”, the leader nodded more relaxed. “Sorry for not believing you, kiddo. Anyways, I’ve got to go.”

“Good luck on your shift!”

The guardian flashed a smile and winked at him before he jogged down the corridor and it was only after he was gone behind a door when Jeongin exhaled and thanked God for making Hongjoong such a kind and gullible soul. He felt kind of bad going behind his back like that but that sense of guilt was something he’d just have to put up with.

If there was anything he _really_ needed to feel bad for, it was Jisung.

Jeongin was about to finally go up the staircase when there was something else distracting him.

“I just don’t understand why everyone made such a fuss about it”, a female voice echoed from up the stairs.

“Me neither”, another one responded. “Did anyone even _like_ Chan?”

Jeongin’s eyes widened and he hid behind a corner as soon as Chan’s name came out of her mouth.

“I guess”, the former voice said and Jeongin heard their footsteps nearing on the stairs. “Though I absolutely don’t get why.”

“Right? The things I heard about him... God, I can't believe he used to be a leader.”

“I’m kinda glad he’s gone.”

“Yeah, it’s what he deserves.”

Jeongin was clenching his fists. Every cell in his body was fuming with anger and the urge to beat up anyone who believed all these stupid rumors someone had set into the world about Chan. Typical things like ‘he treats his guardians and trainees like shit’, ‘he only became unit leader for the spotlight’ or – and this one had Jeongin wanting to barf, – ‘he harasses angels below his rank’.

None of these were true and anyone slightly close to Chan knew that. Yet, a surprisingly great number of people in heaven were stubbornly hating on him on some baseless rumors that a bitter soul had started someday. No one really knew why or when it had happened. Chan had been around in heaven for many, _many_ decades but it was only a few years ago when people had started to assume all these things that were tainting his reputation.

Jeongin gulped as he remembered how many people would actually want to have Chan gone and a horrible realization hit him.

What if another guardian had abducted him?

This was a theory definitely worth discussing with Jisung or maybe even Seungmin. It seemed so obvious now that Jeongin thought about it, and he was wondering why guardians have been wasting all their time to search for Chan on earth when he could have been easily taken to heaven by some vicious guardians.

But before he could start investigating his little theory, he had to try and reach Jisung.

**_Earth._ **

Jisung’s feet were hurting, his vision blurry and his breathing halting. He was gasping, the world spinning like he was stuck on a crazy rollercoaster ride. Somehow, he had managed to drag himself behind a dumpster in an abandoned alleyway more or less secluded from any crowded place nearby before more humans could have spotted him wandering around.

Jisung might not be a guardian but he was not stupid. Something about the way Jeongin had looked at him in panic before he had been practically sucked into the portal, blacked out and woken up at some random place with bruises all over his body and a dislocated wing joint was telling him that something about his plan had definitely gone wrong.

Not to mention that he had also been _seen_ by humans. They have seen him, talked to him, touched him – and Jisung wasn’t too sure if they had bought it when he had said ‘it was all just a dream’. This was a problem. If these guys were able to see him, other humans were probably too and it would only be a matter of time until they would find Jisung as well.

However, instead of wracking his brain for the reasons why things have gone south, he was too preoccupied worrying about the gaping wound on the side of his hip. It seemed like his wings had wrapped around his body as a response to him passing out, to ensure he wasn’t going to get hurt too badly. And it had worked; he had minor bruises on his wings but luckily, his feathers had shielded them from anything worse – except for a dislocation in his left wing, he feared.

The only thing they hadn’t protected though, was that one spot on his hip, which looked and felt like a tiger had tried to rip him open with its claws. Jisung had no clue how and when it had happened but here he was, panting and pressing onto the wound to keep the blood from pouring out like a spring.

He gulped. He needed to get out of there and get help as soon as possible or else, if someone from heaven ever found out, he’ll be in a lot of trouble. But if he just managed to contact Jeongin and get access to a first-aid kit, he’d be perfectly fine treating his wound himself and nobody shall ever find out about his little trip gone wrong.

Taking a last look left and right to ensure there really was nobody near him, he lifted his right arm to his face. “Jeongin? Are you there?”, he spoke into his wrist, his eyes still on the look-out for humans. There was no response and so Jisung tried again, imagining the guardian trainee in front of his mental eye: “Jeongin, do you copy me? I need help, I’m bleeding!”

Still, nothing. 

“Jeongin!”, he exclaimed frantically. “This is not funny, I’m actually-”

Jisung stopped when he noticed that something was off. Reluctantly, he removed his other hand from the wound on his hip and grabbed the sleeve of his right arm, pushing it up with one quick motion...

Only to find a naked wrist, stripped of the golden bracelet that served as Jisung’s halo.

“ _Shit_ ”, he groaned and banged his head on the brick wall behind him. His arm went limp, falling right next to him.

Of course, this just _had_ to happen. Because Jisung wasn’t a guardian, but just a normal immortal being, he wasn’t allowed to wear a shiny golden ring floating above his head – no, those special halos were reserved for the guardians only. Regular halos, like his, were just designed like common fashion items he could easily lose about anywhere.

 _Just use this bracelet_ , they said. _It’ll work for you_ , they said.

If he wasn’t half-dying right now, he would have started ranting about the guardians again. Halos all worked the same, no matter which type you possessed, so there wasn’t a single reason for guardian angels to use different ones other than so they could have another opportunity to show off their social status in public.

Now Jisung was forced to pay the price for using the same old gold chain as halo ever since he had died. Alright, in all fairness, he wasn’t supposed to be here and go through an unstable portal in the first place but still, he felt deeply wronged by the social system of heaven again. Maybe, if he had been able to access a solid, guardian-type halo, this wouldn’t have happened and he wouldn’t be worrying about how the _fuck_ he was supposed to go on now.

 _Okay, Han, don’t panic,_ _think!_ , he thought to himself, trying to ignore the pain as best as he could. It was true that immortals had a super fast metabolism and their injuries would heal faster than humans', but even Jisung’s angelic body couldn’t keep up with a wound of that size and in addition, the blood loss was starting to get him dizzy.

Jisung took a breath, biting his teeth. He still had his halo when he was in the portal room with Jeongin, he was absolutely sure about that. That means he must have lost it anywhere on earth, probably on the way to the alley he was sitting in. He gulped, praying that he’ll be able to find the exact same route back in his current light-headed state.

“Hey!”

Jisung looked up alert, spotting a guy at the other end of the alley that led into a street. Without any street lights around, he could barely make out his tall silhouette in the dull greyness of the early evening.

But solely based on the tone of his voice, Jisung could tell he probably was up to no good.

“This is not a place for homeless people!”, the man said with not even an ounce of joke in his voice and started to approach Jisung with heavy, threatening steps.

Jisung instantly got into a squat and for a second, he considered trying to flee by flying up – however, not only did he realize the alley was way too narrow for his wings, but also that his left wing was practically disabled right now. He crouched down lower, hiding behind the dumpster while simultaneously trying not to cry out due to the pain this position putting on his hips.

“Are you deaf?” The guy said, dangerously close to the dumpster. “I said-”

The moment he reached Jisung, the angel shot up like a bullet and yelped when he pushed the man with all the force he had still left. He stumbled, falling into a pile of trash bags and Jisung took off running like before, scared that anyone else would see him, or rather see his _wings._ He ran towards the other exit of the alleyway, which was in fact the direction he had come from earlier, but his brain was too fuzzy and too high on adrenaline to understand which way he actually had to go.

He just ran into the night in hopes of reaching a safe haven before he would be forced to bleed to death. He couldn’t end like this. He had to keep his promise.

“Minho, tell me... is everything really alright?”

 _Nothing is_ , he wanted to reply.

Minho’s initial plan to break up with Changbin had been completely blown by the _incident._ Instead, he was lying behind the younger, tracing the lines of his naked back with his fingers, delicately stroking along the strong muscles hidden underneath his soft skin. He was caressing the huge scars sitting between his shoulder blades; two parallel lines standing out in faint white. Changbin had once explained they were the remnant of a traffic accident in his childhood, but he had never elaborated any further on the details.

_“Is everything fine?”,_ _Changbin_ _asked once he had reached them. You guys look like you’ve seen a ghost.”_

_“We probably have, to be honest”, Hyunjin said, side-eyeing his roommate._

_Changbin_ _frowned. “What do you mean?”_

_“Nothing”, Minho tried to shake it off – he wasn’t in the mood to explain to someone what he had just seen when he could barely grasp it himself. “What are you doing here? I thought we’d meet at the café."_

_“You didn’t show up and didn’t respond to my calls.”_ _Changbin_ _approached Minho and he let him take his hand. “I was worried so I came here”, he said, reaching up in an attempt to kiss his boyfriend but Minho backed away immediately._ _Changbin_ _froze in his action, his eyes wide and questioning._

_“I, uh... I’ll just leave you guys alone”, they heard Hyunjin saying and eventually his footsteps, indicating he was going away, probably back inside._

_Minho could only stare back, desperately trying to withstand the tension he had just created. He thought he had practiced enough for this moment, that he was prepared but truth was, he didn’t know what to do. He hated this; he usually always knew what to do. He was always in control. Then why did he feel so_ _helpless_ _at that moment? Like he wasn’t in control anymore?_

 _He couldn’t say it. His throat was filled with doubts, unable to spit it out._ _So_ _he did the first thing that came into his mind to save the situation._

 _He leaned forward and kissed_ _Changbin._

_“Hey”, the smaller said gently after they parted. "Are you sure you’re okay?”_

“Yes”, Minho said. “I’m fine.”

After their awkward moment earlier, Minho had suggested going to Changbin’s apartment. They ended up having Sex pretty fast – which was the reason they were currently lying next to each other, stark naked, not even five minutes after they had finished off. Minho had desperately needed a distraction and also an excuse not to talk about anything that happened within the last hour, and luckily it worked.

It was what he liked about their relationship: They never talked, or at least they didn’t talk about the things Minho didn’t _want_ to talk about. Changbin had always sort of understood him without a lot of words and always respected it when Minho decided not to elaborate on things – the same way Minho respected that Changbin didn’t want to talk about his childhood accident. It was like an unspoken agreement between them.

Minho has never had this kind of connection with anyone he has met in his life; someone who spent time with him without expecting anything in return but was just silently there for him. It was the reason he had fallen for Changbin in the first place; he respected his privacy and didn’t try to fix him like a therapist – there was nothing to fix, after all. Just because Minho preferred to be an introverted loner, didn’t mean he had any issues that needed to be mended.

This time too, Changbin respected that. “If you say so”, he said and turned to lie on his back, contenting himself with Minho’s answer.

And as he was lying there, he couldn’t help but wonder if the appearance of the winged guy wasn't just a figment of his imagination, but what if it was a sign? A sign that he shouldn’t leave Changbin?

They kept avoiding each other’s gazes for another silent minute, neither exchanging words nor touches. They just breathed and stared into the air and slowly but surely, the quiet was getting unbearable for Minho again. But he was sure it’d be too awkward to initiate another session now, so he did what seemed less weird and suspicious: He got up and started to put his clothes back on.

“Already leaving?”, he heard Changbin who sat up straight in his bed.

“Yeah...”, Minho said as he pulled his pants up. “Sorry, I just remembered I still have to finish this one paper that’s due tonight. Gotta go.”

“I see, don’t worry.” The younger stood up and clothed himself as well. “It’s already pretty dark out there. Want me to walk you home?”

Minho spared a look out the window; in fact, the darkness had almost completely swallowed the world outside and even little drops of rain were gathering on the other side of the glass, however... “I literally live three blocks away, Changbin. I think I’ll be fine”, he snorted. “Besides, you can’t play ‘protective boyfriend’ when you’re dating a guy.”

“Of course I can!”, Changbin whined and went over to hug Minho after having pulled on a hoodie. “Just because you’re _T_ _he Intimidating Lee Minho_ doesn’t mean you’re untouchable.”

Minho chuckled at the nickname.

“I’m serious, though. You can never know what kind of drunkards, murderers or other shady creatures are running free outside”, the younger pinpointed as overprotective as he always was.

“I know”, Minho rolled his eyes playfully and kissed his boyfriend goodbye. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

They let go of each other and Minho was already halfway out the bedroom door when – “Minho, wait!” – Changbin interrupted his action, making the older turn around with his hand on the handle. Changbin bent down, picking something up from the floor. “Is this yours?”, he asked and only after stepping closer to Minho, the latter recognized the golden bracelet the weird guy had left behind earlier.

“Oh, yeah”, he just said, taking the bracelet and stuffing it back into his jeans pocket. It must have fallen out earlier when he had tossed his pants away carelessly in the heat of the moment.

“Where did you get it from?”, Changbin asked warily all of a sudden.

“I, uh...” Minho blinked, unsure whether to tell the truth or simply lie. “I actually found it lying on the street today. I guess someone lost it”, he eventually decided on half the truth. He figured Changbin wouldn’t believe the full truth anyway.

“I see”, Changbin nodded after a second of hesitation. “Take care, _baby_.”

Minho was about to ask why he cared about that stupid bracelet so much but instead, he gave him a pure death glare. He despised pet names more than anything in this world and ‘baby’ probably made the top three on his ranking of his most hated terms of endearment. Cheesy, lovey-dovey things just made him want to puke and pet names were no exception to that. Changbin knew that since day one, yet he never hesitated to tease Minho by dropping one or another from time to time.

“Alright, alright”, the younger laughed. “Sorry. Take care though!”

Minho rolled his eyes. “See you”, he said, finally making his way out of the apartment.

Once he stepped into the cool, breezy night, he took one big deep breath in order to clear his confused mind. He was simply tired of thinking and doubting all the time. In the end, there was no real reason why he should end his relationship, right?

So Minho let it go, his decision to break up. It wasn’t like Changbin was a bad guy or particularly annoying (most of the time at least), and Minho was just beyond tired wracking his brain over someone else. The word ‘overthinking’ wasn’t in his dictionary, and he wasn’t about to adopt it very soon either.

Ironically, he was so deep in thought at that moment, he almost didn’t notice the frantic footsteps nearing him from behind. A chill went down his spine when he registered that he wasn’t alone in the street and he remembered Changbin’s talk about ‘drunkards, murderers and other shady creatures’.

Minho kept walking, ready to pick up the pace – he only had to turn on the next intersection and he was practically home – but he stopped all at once as he spared a look over his shoulder. In the dim light of the street lamps seaming the sidewalk, he made out the silhouette of something strange and at the same time oddly _familiar_ running right toward him.

When he squinted hard enough, he could recognize a huge pair of swan-like wings attached to nothing less than a human body.

_It’s the guy from before!_

Minho turned to him when they were only a few feet apart. “Hey! You-”

He didn’t come any further; the guy hadn’t stopped running, suddenly crashing right into Minho and they both shrieked out as they fell onto the semi-wet concrete floor.

“Ouch!”, Minho hissed, eyes shut tight, at the throbbing pain at the back of his head and the massy weight on top of him. He clenched his teeth and tried to look through the stars in front of his eyes when he opened them slowly and painfully – only to realize he was barely an inch away from another pair of brown eyes, torn open so wide Minho was afraid they’d fall out of their head any second.

“Oh my god, it’s you again!”

It took Minho a second or two to process those words. “What?”

“You!”, the blonde boy exclaimed. “You’re the human that slapped me earlier!”

 _A simple 'thank you’ would have done, too._ “Get the hell off me”, Minho managed to breathe out of his squeezed lungs and tried to push him away, when suddenly, the guy grabbed his wrists and pinned them to the rough ground with a force that was both impressive and disturbing at the same time. “Hey! What the hell?”

“Do you know where my halo is?”

“Your what?”

“My _halo!_ ”, he repeated hysterically, his grip around Minho’s wrists tightening. “The golden bracelet! Where is it?”

The latter yelped at the pain. “Relax! It’s in my pants pocket, you freaking lunatic!”

The blonde shushed him quiet. “Shut up!”, he hissed, removing one hand from his wrist to cover his mouth with it instead. “They will find you and therefore find _me_ if they think you’re in danger!”

Minho froze. The strength of his grip sent a shiver down his neck and he gave up fighting against the panting boy hovering above him immediately. His anxious eyes were piercing Minho desperately and something about it was telling Minho that this was not the time to fuck around – whatever the guy meant by his words.

Additionally, his stomach churned when a bitter, pungent stench suddenly reached his nose. Minho could only guess it was coming from the guy’s sweaty hand on his mouth.

“Listen”, he said more calmly than before, “I’m not here to hurt you.”

_That’s funny ‘cause you already did._

“I just want to get back what’s mine. So, when I remove my hand, can you promise me to just stay calm?”

Minho tried to gulp down his nausea, then nodded slowly.

“Good...”, he said, drawing his hand back carefully and Minho's eyes widened when he saw that it wasn’t actually _sweat_ that made his hand so greasy – it was fresh, dark blood.

“Holy _shit!_ ” Minho tried crawling backwards but the stranger was still straddling him and he seized his collar, bringing their faces impossibly closer than before, noses pressed together.

“I told you to _stay quiet!_ That’s my _own_ blood, calm down”, he explained through gritted teeth and let Minho go, who looked at him stunned.

“What happened?”, Minho couldn’t help but ask. The question just slipped out even though he wasn’t supposed to care at all.

“Doesn’t matter”, the boy shook the topic off. “Now, can I _please_ get my stupid bracelet?”

“Sure”, he rolled his eyes, “but I’m afraid you’re sitting on it.”

The guy glimpsed down their bodies where his thighs were still tightly interlocked on Minho’s hips. “Oh”, he said flustered all of a sudden, finally getting off his body and sitting next to him on the street.

Minho sat up straight and reached into his pocket before handing the short golden chain over to its rightful owner – who looked like he was rather given back a lung instead of a piece of jewelry. Minho stood up as he watched him fiddling with the bracelet and putting it on immediately.

“Hello?”, he suddenly spoke into his wrist. “Jeongin? Do you read me?”

 _Wow,_ Minho thought, _he’s gone completely nuts._

Maybe he should have just gone home but his curiosity won yet again. “What are you doing?”

“No, please!”, the blonde said in despair, ignoring Minho’s question. “Can anyone hear me? Hello?! No no no, _shit_...!”

If Minho knew any better, he would have said that something didn’t go according to whatever his plan was.

He let out an agonized whine, vigorously shaking his wrist. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me...”

Minho tilted his head. “Everything okay at home?”

“No”, the boy sighed and looked up. “It’s broken.”

“It’s... broken? What’s broken?”

“This cheap ass thing” he lifted his arm. “That’s my halo.”

Minho frowned. “But it’s a bracelet...?”

“Yeah.” He dropped his arm into his lap. “Regular angels are only allowed to use jewelry as halos, because these friggin’ guardians need to feel like some special snowflakes just because they’re the _‘chosen ones'_ or what-fucking-ever...”

Minho blinked several times. “An...gels...?” His eyes wandered to the white wings on his back. _No way._

“Oh, uh... You know what, forget it. You've already seen too much.” The blonde stood up groaning but he was barely able to hold his balance, tumbling a step forward – that was also when Minho saw the huge blood-soaked patch on the stranger’s waist.

“Oh my god, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry!”, he mumbled, stumbling another step. “I’m completely f-”

Suddenly, his eyes rolled back and he fell forward; the only reason he wasn’t kissing the ground right now were Minho’s extraordinary reflexes that had caught him in his arms just in time and before Minho himself could have even consciously decided against it.

So there he stood, in an empty street on a drizzly night with something that was probably an _angel_ in his arms and not a single idea on what to do next.

**IDENTIFICATION CARD**

Name: LEE MINHO

Date of birth: UNKNOWN

Place of birth: UNKNOWN

Place of residence: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

Status: HUMAN

Name: HWANG HYUNJIN

Date of birth: UNKNOWN

Place of birth: UNKNOWN

Place of residence: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

Status: HUMAN

Name: SEO CHANGBIN

Date of birth: UNKNOWN

Place of birth: UNKNOWN

Place of residence: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

Status: HUMAN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jisung fainting at the end of the chapter is NOT going to become a regular thing, I promise LMAO
> 
> Hope, you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a kudo or comment if you did ^^
> 
> \- millie (ig/twt: @hanilla_)

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! I have prewritten a few chapters that I'm going to publish weekly, then I'm gonna see how regularly I can update.
> 
> \- Millie


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